Quilt making is a traditional art performed by many artisans. Quilts are traditionally made by precisely cutting pieces of fabric having different shape, color, design, and texture, then sewing the fabric pieces together to form a finished block having a particular design. The individual finished blocks are eventually sewn together according to a master design, which forms the cover of the quilt. While a completed quilt has practical applications in the home, very beautiful artistic designs are frequently employed in completing the finished quilt, thus, quilt making is considered an art form.
Ordinarily, geometric patterns are incorporated into the overall design of the quilt. Frequently, two different shapes are employed in creating the design, square and triangular. The angles and lengths of the individual square and triangular pieces must be sufficiently precise so that straight edges will eventually line up with other pieces of fabric at the proper angle in accord with the master design of the quilt.
Several possible solutions to this problem have been proposed. THE EASY ANGLE™ cutting guideline, distributed by Quilt House, Saddle Brook, N.J., is a transparent piece of plastic in the form of right triangle having gradated lines at crossing right angles to the right angle etched into its surface. The quilter using THE EASY ANGLE™ is limited by this device to making equilateral triangle shaped pieces. The TRI TOOL™ and RECS TOOL™, distributed by Quilt House, Saddle Brook, N.J., are also transparent plastic triangles having gradated lines etched into their surfaces. These tools have imprinted on their surfaces a series of parallel, gradated lines corresponding with the X-axis of the triangle. The TRI TOOL™ is used for cutting pieces to be arranged as triangles or triangles within squares having a height that is equal to the width of the base of the triangle. The RECS TOOL™ is used to cut pieces when finished to be used as 1×2 proportion triangles, having a height that is two times the width of the base of the triangle. Both the TRI TOOL™ and the RECS TOOL™, of necessity, come in a wide range of sizes. Perfect Patchwork Templates are distributed by Michell Marketing, Inc., and comprise a set of clear plastic pieces that are used as templates for cutting out a specifically sized and shaped piece of fabric. Perfect Patchwork Templates contain no gradated lines and are only used as outer templates for cutting out fabric pieces in different sizes and shapes. KALEIDO-GUIDELINE™ is distributed by Michell Marketing, Inc., Atlanta, Ga. and comprises a clear piece of plastic having a series of gradated lines etched into its surface. The angles represented by KALEIDO-GUIDELINE™ are peculiar to a “kaleidoscope” or pattern of radially arranged fabric pieces.
The devices discussed above all contain limitations making them difficult or inconvenient to use. As discussed, some of the devices, by their nature, require completely separate units to cut pieces of fabric having different sizes and angular configurations. The result of multiple devices of many sizes is that a number of devices decrease efficiency by occupying space, and, inevitably, some get lost. The one piece devices are generally limited to assisting in cutting out a single type of piece, requiring multiple units and resulting in similar problems as the single size units discussed above. The devices also require the process to start with the proper size strip of fabric requiring the user to mathematically determine the proper width of the finished block plus any seam allowances needed.
What is clearly needed is a single unit that combines the functions of a plurality of separate units, allows both square shaped blocks and triangular blocks with integrally attached seam allowances to be quickly and easily cut, and assures precise alignment of the pieces to form a finished block with a proper seam allowance and a proper edge length.